Queens of Art
The show must go on. No truer words have been spoken (or sung in the case of that anthemic Queen song) about an arts and cultural scene at a standstill due to a pandemic. Five women in new roles in the arts share how they are looking at the road ahead
Five women in new roles in the arts share how they are looking at the road ahead
EMILY J HOE
Executive director, Singapore International Film Festival Emily J Hoe had an unusual start to her new job. She took over as executive director of the Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) from Yuni Hadi in April, just as circuit breaker measures were being introduced in Singapore and started working from home. And she has her work cut out for her. The 31st edition of the largest and longest-running film event in Southeast Asia, which remains an important platform for Asian premieres highlighting local filmmakers, will run from November 26 to December 6. “One of the priorities has been to keep the team focused on contingency planning, seeing as there’s so much uncertainty in the coming months,” says Hoe. Despite this, she hopes to bring the love of local and regional film to the wider community. She shares her notes on independent filmmakers and the changing face of film festivals.
On the new wave of local creatives
“We’ve seen confident voices and collaborative impact from the younger generation of filmmakers and producers in Singapore. Recent notable achievements included Huang Junxiang and Jerrold Chong’s animation work, Piece of Meat, screened at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2019; Anthony Chen’s Wet Season—lead Yeo Yann Yann won Best Actress at the Golden Horse Awards 2019—was produced by Tan Si En; and Shoki Lin’s short film Adam, a Cannes Cinéfondation 2019 selection, was mentored by Nicole Midori Woodford. There’s also a growing social awareness among local filmmakers, evident in Yong Shu Ling’s Unteachable and Lei Yuan Bin’s I Dream of Singapore that speak of the times we live in.”
On alternative ways of engaging audiences
“Common connection and likeminded appreciation is instrumental to the audience experience. Where possible, we would like to prioritise gathering communities to appreciate the films we curate in safe and responsible ways. However, considering the Covid-19 situation, the festival is exploring a hybrid of in-person screenings complemented by online screenings through digital platforms.”
On the independent film ecosystem
“SGIFF sees beauty in the diversity of voices, styles, opinions, perspectives and abilities—our various programmes drive these as such. But we can’t deliver a festival without filmmakers and their work; we also need the support of audiences to come on a cinematic journey with us; and of course, our funders, sponsors and donors are crucial.”
On a world without the arts
“I’ve had in-depth exposure to various art forms: visual arts, film, music, theatre, dance and literary arts, and these experiences have touched and moved me—often in beautiful and unexpected ways. I can’t imagine a happy world that’s devoid of the arts. Sometimes the arts is seen as something unnecessary, but without the arts in our lives, our days would be rather bleak and grey.”
KWOK MIN YI
Principal artist,
Singapore Dance Theatre
Six hours a day, five days a week— that’s how much time Kwok Min Yi spends in the studio taking classes or rehearsing for upcoming performances with the Singapore Dance Theatre (SDT), where she was promoted in January to become its first Singaporean female principal—a dancer at the highest rank in a dance company. But with the global pandemic keeping many at home these past few months,
“it was challenging to keep up our fitness and better our craft”, laments the ballerina. Even so, she kept busy sewing her pointe shoes, doing body conditioning and centre exercises, barre and pointe work, and supplemented with Youtube videos on everything from ballets to makeup tutorials. While it is uncertain when she will next pirouette on stage in front of a live audience, she fondly recalls her first principal role in the full-length classical ballet
Don Quixote in March last year. “I remember being very excited and just trying to live in the moment whenever I stepped on stage.”
On her journey from apprentice to principal
“Since starting out as an apprentice at SDT [in 2012], I’d like to think that I’ve gained more life experiences and, perhaps, even a different outlook on life, which creates more maturity in my dancing. Being a professional dancer requires a lot of mental, emotional and physical strength. It also involves a great deal of commitment, dedication and love for the art form.”
On her ballet inspiration
“One of my ballet teachers at the English National Ballet School was the late Anya Evans. My cohort was the last group of students she taught. She was very strict in class, but also such a warm and loving person with a great passion for the craft. At her age, she was still demonstrating every exercise and never failed to fill the studio with so much energy and enthusiasm. This is the attitude that I want to emulate.”
On classical ballet vs contemporary dance
“I trained predominantly in classical ballet, but at SDT I’m exposed to a wide classical and contemporary repertoire, which pushes me to explore different facets of myself. Ballet is always evolving, and contemporary choreographers are constantly pushing the boundaries of dance and movement. Yet, on the other hand, there’s classical ballet, which remains timeless in its technique and aesthetic.”
On her dream role
“I think it would be fun to explore the role of Lise in the charming and light-hearted ballet, La Fille Mal Gardée. As dancers, our bodies are our only tool. I cannot foresee the future but as long as I am fit and well I definitely hope to be dancing and improving on this art form that I love.”
POOJA NANSI
Festival director,
Singapore Writers Festival
Poet and educator Pooja Nansi would have celebrated a number of firsts in the 12 months till October this year. We list down three: helming her inaugural Singapore Writers Festival in November last year; another “first” should this year’s edition, scheduled from October 30 to November 8, move online (“Maybe, maybe not. We’re in the great unknown at the moment”); and with her baby bump pictured for the first time in all its glory—you see it first in Tatler Singapore—she’s expecting her first child. She readily admits that she’s least prepared for the most personal among these milestones but professionally, the Covid crisis has made her slow down and think about who a festival really serves, and what it really serves to do. “For me it is to allow a coming together and an exchange of ideas, so the disruption has made me strip art-making down to its essentials.” Not surprising as art to her is “an act of expression on the human condition”. She shares her experience in curating a festival and insights on the digitalisation of arts and culture content.
On her first year as festival director
“My first year was like being let loose in a giant wild area and trying to learn the terrain. A festival of this scale has so many moving parts that all work together to create a seamless experience for the festivalgoer, from marketing to logistics to programming to how we manage our small army of volunteers. So for me it was equal parts learning, terror, and also confidence in what I was bringing to the table in terms of vision.”
On the considerations of a virtual vs physical festival
“It’s definitely a different experience for the festivalgoer. So moving from a physical space to a nebulous online space is one. It means not building festival grounds but trying to create an experience which value-adds for the festivalgoer who has so much other content online competing for their attention.”
On the digitalisation of art-making
“I’ll be upfront and say I’m a largely analogue girl living in a digital world. I still love pen and paper, and tactile experiences in artmaking. What digital technology has allowed in this time is access to work internationally, which was otherwise inaccessible without travel. I think how you choose to use technology as an artist is a deeply personal choice based on your practice and what you think serves the work in question.”
On what she is looking forward to
“I’ve actually deeply enjoyed phases 1 and 2 [during the easing of circuit breaker measures in Singapore], which forced me to slow down and take away a lot of the anxiety that our too busy lives create. But moving to phase 3, I think I’m most looking forward to hearing poetry being read out live in a room full of bodies because that energy is not replicable online. That and eating a giant bowl of pasta with my friends.”
GOH SWEE CHEN
Chairman, National Arts Council “Imagine a world without art—and we will quickly realise the vital role it plays in living,” says National Arts Council (NAC) chairman Goh Swee Chen. As Singapore’s arts sector lead, NAC is focused on sustaining a vibrant and diverse arts scene through a strong post-pandemic recovery. A $55 million Arts and Culture Resilience Package was introduced in March to tide art practitioners through the storm, while bringing to the fore the power of arts and culture to uplift spirits. Since taking over from ambassadorat-large Chan Heng Chee in September last year, Goh, who has been an NAC council member since the year prior, is personally committed to this mission. For her, the arts sector thrives on human connections and constant innovation, but its value cannot be premised solely on dollars and cents. “The arts have tremendous potential to contribute to both societal and economic developments, through its propensity to capture and translate lives and living.”
On the role of arts in society
“Human needs for art transcend both peace and war times. The arts have captured history, highlighting how we have overcome times of strife—giving hope and optimism. The year 2020 is extraordinary, and its stories will be told through plays, literature, songs and paintings. The arts will weave the narratives of communities’ responses to a lockeddown world, and it will bring us together and strengthen us.”
On reviving an industry in crisis
“This once in a century crisis has also accelerated the need to evolve, as the arts community came together to bring their works and performances online. The push for digitalisation is now stronger than ever with technological advancements profoundly impacting the way we produce, distribute and enjoy arts content.”
On leveraging digital technology
“Technology enables an alternative means of staying connected with audiences when it’s impossible to play live. The pandemic forces the arts community to expedite its digitalisation thrust, an imminent step that it needs to take to better understand and expand its reach to a broader audience. If there’s a silver lining to the current crisis, this is it.”
On private patronage in the arts
“Smaller arts groups represent Singapore’s diverse arts landscape— and they typically lack the means to raise funds independently. The support of private patrons is crucial in nurturing an artist or an arts company with strong potential, providing a period to incubate great art. We have been encouraging private advocacy and patronage in the arts, with the aim to build up the START Fund [which NAC launched recently in collaboration with the private sector] to $10 million by 2022 to support about 100 arts groups.”
SHUYIN YANG
Fair director, Art SG
“Expect the unexpected and be ready for it”—this is what Shuyin Yang has gleaned from working with best in the art fair industry, namely Tim Etchells, Sandy Angus and Magnus Renfrew, who between them hold a portfolio of exceptional art fairs, including Taipei Dangdai, Sydney Contemporary and Photofairs Shanghai. “Their first fair together, Art HK (now Art Basel Hong Kong), weathered the global financial crisis in its early years and bounced back even more strongly,” shares Yang, who is the fair director of Art SG, which the trio will jointly organise. Their experience has greatly influenced the planning of the new art fair “as we are constantly forward-looking rather than dwelling on the impact of present circumstances”. Art SG’S entry into the local art market will once again be postponed to November 5 to 7 next year. Formerly fair director of Art Central Hong Kong, Yang has astute knowledge of art in Singapore and Southeast Asia “to create something that’s going to excite the market and audience”.
On steering Art SG’S entry into the Singapore market
“One of the foundational values of Art SG is championing the strength and diversity of Singapore and Southeast Asia, from cultural production, to galleries, to the collecting scene. Collectors will be able to form meaningful connections with leading regional and global galleries, and explore the most exciting contemporary art from around the world. We hope that this level of access will allow the formation of even more thoughtful art collections within Singapore. The sustainability of Singapore’s art scene and education is another focus area. Curators, such as Cosmin Costinas of Para Site in Hong Kong, will help us create talks, discussion panels, a site-specific installation platform, and other learning opportunities.”
On the potential of Singapore art
“There’s a generation of rising young
Singapore artists with the ability to connect with global audiences. Most of their practices are issuesdriven, shaped by their personal experiences in Singapore, yet at the same time their visual language and use of mediums such as installation, film and technology mean they are at the forefront of pushing boundaries in artistic development.”
On the role of collectors in the making of art history
“These unprecedented times are likely to spur some incredible thought and work, and progressively minded collectors should be engaged with galleries and artists now more than ever. Collecting an artwork goes beyond simply acquiring an object, it’s about knowledge transfer and, perhaps, even custodianship of an artist’s practice which will have significant social, critical or historical resonances in years to come.”
On what she has her eye on
“My personal taste leans towards abstraction and minimalism. However, I’m increasingly drawn to the use of video and moving image. I’m looking forward to seeing what artworks and developments emerge from the biggest crisis in contemporary times as it has the potential to lead us to new heights in artistic production.”